I went to this East Street restaurant over half a year ago, and haven’t written about it. I’ve been collecting some topics in my ‘idea’ folder, thinking to write when it ‘clicks’ me. East Street is one of them. I didn’t get any specific issue I want to write today, so I decided to write about it. So my photos and what I write here may not be up-t0-date of how the restaurant is now.

East Street is a Pan-Asian street food restaurant, created sometime in January 2012 (?) by Nick Jeffries and David Fox, founders of Asian fusion restaurant chain Tampopo from Manchester. East Street offers a wide variety of Asian dishes, inspired by the founders’ own culinary experiences during their travels across Asia. ‘i-am’ Associates was in charge of its brand identity including the creation of a name and logo, graphics and interior design (reference: Dezeen). Thank to them, the restaurant is stylishly and colourfully decorated with full of kitsch neon signs, ephemera from across Asian countries, creating the essence of South-East Asian street food markets.

In general, I don’t trust restaurants cooking all kinds of borderless ‘fusion’ dishes, especially Asian as I am Asian myself. To my eyes, the food never be good if you don’t focus on whatever you can do well, except some master chefs who can create an excellent dish from anything. Unfortunately East Street doesn’t offer authentic food or something mouthwatering, like Wagamama. However, the location is convenient, and it’s upbeat and fun place to drink (you wouldn’t care the taste of food when you drink!) with your friends.